before 900;Middle Englishteren (v.), Old Englishteran; cognate with Dutchteren,Germanzehren to consume, Gothicdistairan to destroy, Greekdérein to flay

Related forms

tearable, adjective

tearableness, noun

tearer, noun

untearable, adjective

Synonym Study

1.Tear,rend,rip mean to pull apart. To tear is to split the fibers of something by pulling apart, usually so as to leave ragged or irregular edges: to tear open a letter.Rend implies force or violence in tearing apart or in pieces: to rend one's clothes in grief.Rip implies vigorous tearing asunder, especially along a seam or line: to rip the sleeves out of a coat.

tear

n.

"water from the eye," Old English tear, from earlier teahor, tæhher, from Proto-Germanic *takh-, *tagr- (cf. Old Norse, Old Frisian tar, Old High German zahar, German Zähre, Gothic tagr "tear"), from PIE *dakru-/*draku- (cf. Latin lacrima, Old Latin dacrima, Irish der, Welsh deigr, Greek dakryma). Tear gas first recorded 1917.

The Old English past tense survived long enough to get into Bible translations as tare before giving place 17c. to tore, which is from the old past participle toren. Sense of "to pull by force" (away from some situation or attachment) is attested from late 13c. To be torn between two things (desires, loyalties, etc.) is from 1871.

1650s, mainly in American English, from tear (n.1). Related: Teared; tearing. Old English verb tæherian did not survive into Middle English.

tear 1

The Dictionary of American Slang, Fourth Edition by Barbara Ann Kipfer, PhD. and Robert L. Chapman, Ph.D.Copyright (C) 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers.Cite This Source

Idioms and Phrases with tear it

tear it

Ruin something, spoil one's chances, as in She knew she'd torn it when she lost the address. It is often put as
that tears it, as in He's a whole week late—well, that tears it for the September issue.
[ ; early 1900s
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